Every artillery discharge of the Russians
caused frightful cries and a frightful commotion in the helpless mass.
And the rear guard, in trying to make them advance, ill-treated them, the
soldiers who had clung to the flag assumed the right to despise those who,
either voluntarily or under compulsion, had abandoned it.
Of the old generals of Davout some had been killed, Friant was so severely
wounded that he could not be about, Compans had been wounded in the arm,
Moraud in the head, but these two, the former with one arm in a sling, the
other with a bandaged head, were on horseback, surrounding the marshal
commanding the first corps which had been reduced to 15 thousand from 20
thousand at Moshaisk, from 28 thousand in Moscow, and from 72 thousand
crossing the Niemen. The remaining 15 thousand were all old warriors whose
iron constitution had triumphed.
The battle of Wiasma took place on the 2d. of November. The Russians under
Miloradovitch had 100 cannon, whereas the French under Ney, Davout,
and the wounded generals named above, had only 40. This day cost the French
1,500 to 1,800 men in killed and wounded, and, as mentioned, these were of
the oldest and best; the loss of the Russians was twice that number, but
their wounded were not lost, while it was impossible to save a single one
of the French, for the latter had no attendance at all; the cold being very
severe it killed them, and those who did not perish by the frost were put
to death by the cruel, ferocious Russian peasants.
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